Tan Kin Lian's Blog: DirectAsia.com

Sunday, July 11, 2010

DirectAsia.com

Dear Mr Tan,
I accidentally chanced upon this website, www.directasia.com which sells insurance directly to consumers. Would you care to take a look at it and comment about it on your blog?
jenny

REPLY
Can you try this website and give me your findings. You can apply for motor insurance and compare with your existing rate.

NOTE TO READERS
Please try this website and share your findings here.

20 comments:

anon said...: HI Mr Tan,

Since I don't drive, so I will use travel insurance for comparison.
A draft spreadsheet of my findings of Directasia vs Income is here:
https://spreadsheets.google.com/ccc?key=0AjyNV7M38GmvdE5TeGs0T1NBbWFYYXpFb3FyRjZfUFE&hl=en

Basically the premiums at Direct Asia are cheaper. Income's travel insurance plans carried more detailed description of what claims are covered. Direct Asia sometimes put a few categories (as in Income) under one category.

I am not too sure whether we should be more kiasu. But as a traveller, I have made 2-3 claims against my travel policies previously, and all for the same "trivial" reasons: flight delay, overbooked flight, baggage delay that sort of stuff. So based on that, DirectAsia seems to offer reasonable protection for a good price.; July 11, 2010 11:48 AM
Anonymous said...: I have tried directasia.com The prices seem okay (but, as the advert says - not cheap).

They offered somewhat better value than my car insurance from Chartis - whom I dropped this year as they screwed up my renewal.

I completed the on-line form and had the cert emailed to me about 2 or so hours later. I had some questions which were answered promptly by calling the hotline.

A generally pleasant purchasing experience.

However, the "proof of the pudding" of the company will be when one makes a claim.; July 11, 2010 12:22 PM
Anonymous said...: The below is a posting in REACH about the 5Cs used by Insurance agents and why ONLINE PORTAL or DIRECT is fairer .
Why online insurance is fair and non threatening. It is like going to supermarket to shop your life insurance.No one to bother you, worse , no one to bullshit and con you into buying something that you don't need but which benefits the salesmen.
You have complete freedom. You buy what you know.If you don't know you would consult someone more knowledgeable before you come shopping . You did some home work first and zero in on the products that will meet your needs.. You have all the time to consider your needs and constraints.
With insurance agents, the below will happen.
Beware of their modus operandi, the 5 Cs.

1. Convince.......the agents will try to close the sale by convincing you with half truths...that means only the nice things you like to hear about the insurance products.
eg.. whole life products got insurance and saving. It also got retrenchment benefits..you only pay for ten years and you are covered for life...
Are they the truths? only half , the other half if you hear you won't buy.
2. Coaxing......if convincing doesn't lead to close... then coaxing..using words like please, use your childdren and wife as the targets, then your parents. Fpr lady agents they might go physical.. touch here and there...
3. Confuse.........coaxing didn't work.. then confusing might.. eg..when you lose a job you need not pay premium when unemployed; when you get the payouts you can buy another policy, lah;; the return is always increasing..you see the cash value going up, hor;
when you can't pay the premium we can help you to pay; you see if a+B+d+HH + YYY+K=A+ k+E=XZY etc.
4.Con.... confusing didn't work either...the csutomers still steady...not interested...Then now is to con him...... Mr. if you take up now we give away 20% discount or a $120 vouchers which adds to the return of your policy when you calculate the return.
5...the last resort... cheating....can you give me your IC and you sign here and if you keep your policy for 10 years you no need to pay the premium, also you are covered for life, also we return you all the premium you pay and you can get this $$$$$ for retirement...good or not...just sign here and there and give me your IC.. You got CRedit CaRD... we accept credit card for premium.. make sure you use credit card when the premium is due, hor...you see you are insured for $500K... aiya don't worry about the premium, just use the credit card , lah..
Thank you for being gong gong.... I just met the quota for MDRT; July 11, 2010 1:15 PM
Anonymous said...: Product pushing agents use the 5Cs.They are salesmen and women . If not how to qualify for MDRT? They are known as the option 3 so called executive financial consultants.
I wonder what is MAS doing. Financial doctors my foot.They are product conmen and women worse than the precious stone conmen.; July 11, 2010 2:24 PM
Anonymous said...: in the Sunday Times today a former insurance agent 'millionaire' couple tried applying the 5Cs in another ruse but got exposed and caught. Their customers or victims saw through their ploy unlike their former life insurance victims who were too comatose to see or suspect anything.All evils will end one day and this one ended sooner.The evil must be really more than evil.; July 11, 2010 3:45 PM
Anonymous said...: Rex comments as follows

huh, the car insurance premiums from "directAsia" really seem to be considerably cheaper!!

This new kid-on-the-block seems to be really giving value for money, however it appears that they are brand new company with not track record to speak of. All they say is that they are active in europe and a few places and they are headquartered in Singapore (George Street 16th floor office). So what? You could be a brand new company but tomorrow you close shop.
They are from "Whittington Group" a new insurance company headquartered in Singapore.

I wonder if it is safe to put the insurance with them? They say MAS approved them so they are very worthy of trust. Hmm. MAS also approved lots of toxic stuffs. MAS also alloed CPF to be used to buy hightech shares which gone bust in 2000.

It is like buying a no-brand watch costing $2 compared to a Casio costing $15. Maybe it's ok. Somtimes the nobrand watch can last 10 years and your casio died before that. Maybe i should take the risk. Should i? I need to decide soon as my car insuracne expiring three weeks time.

rex; July 11, 2010 6:18 PM
Anonymous said...: Article on DirectAsia

http://www.asiaone.com/Motoring/News/Story/A1Story20100629-224385.html; July 11, 2010 7:56 PM
Anonymous said...: As someone said just now, the real test of DirectAsia will come when one makes a claim on the insurance. (service, speed of payment of claim, or even denial of payment); July 11, 2010 8:43 PM
Anonymous said...: Yes, it is better to be kiasu than
to cry later. Many companies selling products, including inurance, we should be wary. So what if they are MAS approved,
Nowadays MAS stinked, after the Minibonds event.; July 11, 2010 10:25 PM
Anonymous said...: Have tried directasia.com, many options available. But i still got a cheaper car insurance from sgcarmart.com.; July 12, 2010 10:55 AM
Anonymous said...: paid 1166.37 per year for ntuc drivo classic, checked on directasia and found that the price is about 200+ cheaper. damn. anyone tried them?; July 14, 2010 7:22 PM
Anonymous said...: Rex comments as follows,

I am pleased to report that DirectAsia insurance for my car saved me $223!!!
It is a fantastic deal!!!
I am aware of the potential issues:
a. Excess is $600 (Great Eastern 350)
b. Claims process is not proven;
c. Company is new.

The reason why i considred the risks reasonable is as follows:, I think i'm quite a safe driver. At most if i get involved in accidents, the usual mentaility is to consider whether to claim. If you claim your insurance shoots up the next year. Whetehr you claim or don;t claim, you have to pay excess. So if the average claim is say $1000, shave off the excess$600, you claim $400. But since you saved $230 buying from direct asia, this is peanuts. So it is no problem at all to buy from this no-name insurance company. I assume the accidents invovled are not really huge accidents of $25000 claims or whatever.
The service is FANTASTIC. I got everything approved in 5 minutes with the insurance cert printed on my own printer, and i just used it to renew road tax. Two days later, DirectASia send me a thick document with binding and cloth bag containing more information. All this for $477 to insure my car, (including for floods!) where can you get that!!

rex; July 15, 2010 4:47 PM
val: i believe in me => said...: I checked out DirectAsia, Aviva and Insupermart for travel insurance to quote my holiday trip to Australia for 12days.

DirectAsia offered the lowest quote but when i read the policy wordings, i realized tat the coverage is quite limited. Aviva and Insupermart's quote was okay. I think Insupermart offered quote based on Chartis, NTUC and Tenet. I've not really heard of Tenet but the brochure is quite cute, plan is comprehensive.

I called up Aviva and DirectAsia to make some enquiries about the policy wordings. Both are hotlines that force u to listen to their opening hours, promotions etc. Press 1 for product, press 2 for claims etc. Sighz, boring... For Aviva, the automated system was very draggy and i was informed tat all officers are engaged at the moment, approximate waiting time of 6mins so i hung up. Plus i think Aviva said got some survey after the call. DirectAsia was much better, with my call being answered within 1min after the automated system. Insupermart's contact no provided is a direct line, so it saves time since u get to speak to the officer immediately and bypassing the lengthy promotions and opening hours talk.

My personal opinion: i'm not interested in Aviva. i like DirectAsia's price and quick service, but i probably will take up travel insurance with Insupermart for the comprehensive cover. (its better to pay abit more to have a peace of mind). Hope tis info helps. =>; July 19, 2010 9:08 AM
drogon.spire said...: It is true Directasia.com is a new company but I see it is not just authorised by MAS but has the support of the world's largest reinsurer Munich Re behind it. They surely would not have backed a company they did not think was competent?. Also I see the parent company has long and substantial track record in Lloyd's of London which is highly regulated. They would have a lot to lose I think if Directasia went wrong.. whatever they are not going to bustquickly so it will be quite safe for a few years until they prove themselves!; July 23, 2010 10:36 AM
- said...: I like to share that Directasia.com is excellent on motor insurance cover. The quotation is a no fuss, quick and transparent process. Service is fast and great.

No body wants to insure their car and be treated like a criminal.

Myself and my friends all had very bad renewal and claims process with big players. (names withheld). A friend of mine had his Toyota damaged in KL Malaysia. His previous insurer asked him to 'claim the whole car' and refused to render any help. Worse, the claims process involved 5 changes of officers, and the case lingered a long time. Worse of all, after all the hoo har, the insurer refused to renew his insurance. (surely, they have the right to do, even for stupid reasons)

If we are paying thousands for the big players to get fat, why should we put up with their shoddy claims process? You may want to note that even A** appear to sub contract out their claims operations. Very often, dubious claims can get into the process (like claim 1 million for a 1 thousand dollars damage). And big boys react too slow, often result in the customers' interests are not protected.

You want to note that if there is an Accident in Malaysia, the Malaysian insurance WILL make ridiculous claims from Singapore insurer. They know that they can get car information on line, and the Malaysian courts will give favors to their locals. As such, the Singapore insurers are loosing a lot of money in Malaysia, and they refuse to admit it.

DirectAsia has an internal board to tackle the Claims procedure within 24 hours. They did give legal coverage against a case I know, and recovered the car within 48 hours. If the car owner I know insured with another company, he would had the car LOST COMPLETELY.

So locals need to broaden their horizon. Don't let the big fat cats suck you even drier for years. I am not working for DriectAsia, but did have excellent first hand experiences with them.

It will be very strange if a driver is willing to pay thousands more in premium, pay the agents' income, and yet get poor coverage.; January 24, 2011 1:44 PM
Jas' scribbles said...: My first travel insurance claim with DirectAsia for baggage delay was futile as the policy does not cover for baggage delay with scheduled destination back to Singapore (only for baggage delay happens in overseas). This is really a major put-off as baggage delay tops the list of travel inconveniences.

As such, I lost confidence on this company as there are really minimal coverage with their so-called 'competitive' pricing. After this incident, I learned a lesson that it’s really worth paying a bit more to have complete peace of mind.; January 31, 2011 1:43 PM
DirectAsia.com said...: This comment has been removed by the author.; February 28, 2011 12:16 PM
DirectAsia.com said...: We would like to thank Ms Jas for her feedback.

As with many insurance companies our policy did not cover claims for delayed baggage when returning to Singapore.

Since Ms Jas’ claim we have taken a fresh look at this standard policy detail and have decided it would serve our customers better if we included coverage for delayed baggage on returning to Singapore and not just outbound baggage delays. This new amendment will take effect immediately.

We would like to point out that we are competitively priced because we cut out the middleman and not because we compromise on our product. A more expensive product from another insurer does not necessarily mean a customer has more cover.

At DirectAsia.com we listen to our customer's feedback and we pride ourselves on staying closely connected to our clients. We very much appreciate Ms Jas' feedback who has now kindly thanked us for our revised response to her claim.

DirectAsia.com; March 03, 2011 9:57 AM
Ros said...: I've bought a travel insurance from DirectAsia.com for my UK trip. As we were caught in a major traffic jam on our way to the airport, which lasted 2 hours plus, which caused us to miss our flight home, we had to pay some extra to have our flights rescheduled to the next day, and spent an additional night in the airport hotel. When I called up to enquire about the possibility of a claim two Saturday ago, a rep by the name of Renee said she would enquire about it and get back to me by last Monday, and it's been two weeks now and there have been totally no news from her. When I tried to call up, I was put on hold for a long time without being able to speak to anyone. I think this is really very bad service and I would really think twice about buying any policies from this company again.; July 04, 2011 11:22 AM
wenshun said...: I am due to renew my motor insurance with directasia. they sent me a renewal letter and gave me a quote. however, when i used their platform and resubmitted my information, the new quote is almost 300 dollars cheaper! called them up and was told that my premium was raised because my car was involved with an accident. i explained that that accident was the other driver's fault and we claimed their insurance. I requested them to review my case and after many days of wait, they just got back to me and said that their offer remains.
this is the first time I have heard of insurers penalising their customers for accidents not being their fault.
maybe it is written in some fine print somewhere. maybe it is my fault for not understanding more before i get myself insured with them. but i will definitely not recommend them to anyone anymore.

ws; October 25, 2011 11:51 AM

Sunday, July 11, 2010

DirectAsia.com

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